Manifesto joins The Panoply in its run up to IPO

Digital experience agency Manifesto has joined The Panoply as the technology services group prepares to float on the London Stock Exchange. London-based Manifesto, which has worked for charities including Parkinson's UK, Unicef UK, and the National Trust, recently signed a binding share purchase agreement with The Panoply. The Panoply also simultaneously signed similar agreements with Norwegian business transformation consultancy Bene Agere, digital transformation specialists Notbinary, and distributed software development company Questers. According to The Panoply, the deals provide it with the critical mass required for IPO, which will see the group target expansion across Europe over the next few years. The four companies are all engaged in tech-related consultancy and digital transformation and are uniting in a new model which sees complementary companies group together to compete with the larger firms that often provide consultancy to large corporates, According to The Panoply, Manifesto’s expertise in front-end experiences, which encompasses service design, user experience, content management and marketing automation completes an offering which includes cloud computing, machine learning, digital transformation and automation capabilities. Neal Gandhi, founder and CEO of The Panoply, said: “It is our intention to continue to acquire businesses across Europe and bolster organic growth, taking advantage of the growing market for digital transformation services, one that IDC predicts will reach $82bn in EMEA by 2021. “Adding Manifesto to our group of companies means that, alongside leading-edge consultancy on automation, artificial intelligence and business transformation, we can help our clients deliver award-winning multi-channel customer experiences, and join up the dots between customer-facing and back-end processes to unlock further innovation. Manifesto is key to our growth plans.” The Panoply is targeting an AIM listing before the end of 2018. On listing all companies will now rebrand adding the TPX prefix, becoming TPX Bene Agere, TPX Manifesto, TPX Notbinary and TPX Questers. Manifesto CEO Jim Bowes will remain in his current role and in addition take on the role of Chief Innovation Officer for the group which will see him representing innovation for the company at conferences, in the press, and online. Mark Smith, former COO of Chime Communications plc at the time the company was bought out for £374m is the group’s new Chairman of the Board. Profit with Purpose founder Isabel Kelly has joined as a non-executive director, with Chris Sweetland, former Deputy Group Finance Director at WPP.    

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